5 Takeaway Moments From the 2016 Tony Awards

The Tone After waking up to the devastating news of the massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, it was hard to imagine an all-out big-smiles-and-jazz-hands celebration of Broadway. And the Tony Awards, which were broadcast live from the Beacon Theatre last night, ran the risk of coming off as either too blithely peppy against the background of tragedy or too solemn and self-congratulatory. But the act of making theater is fundamentally an affirmation of life, and the theater community can legitimately claim to have always been ahead of the rest of society in its inclusiveness. Luckily, the Tonys managed to strike the right balance, acknowledging the tragedy while doing what (at its best) it does best: entertaining. The sheer joy of some of the evening’s musical numbers—particularly those from Hamilton and The Color Purple—needed no commentary to stand as repudiations to darkness and death. And the few moments during which the tragedy was explicitly addressed were genuinely moving, particularly in the acceptance speeches of Frank Langella and Lin-Manuel Miranda, who, in an epic sonnet-heard-round-the world, assured us that “love is love is love is love is love.”

The Host James Corden can now claim the mantle from erstwhile Tony host Neil Patrick Harris of Hardest Working Man in Show Business. Genial, charming, funny, tireless, and shameless, the Tony-winning _One Man, Two Guvnors_star turned late-night host—referred to by this year’s Lead Actor in a Musical winner Leslie Odom, Jr., in the Hamilton-themed opening number, as “that chubby dude from Into the Woods”—threw himself into his duties, from singing and dancing through a medley of (mildly amusing) Broadway show tunes to a demented carpool karaoke with Lin-Manuel Miranda, Audra McDonald, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and Jane Krakowski. He even kept the audience awake and amused during the commercial breaks, like an old-fashioned tumbler at a Catskills resort. My favorite moment was when he reeled backward across the stage, as if he’d been hit with a sledge hammer, at the appearance of Barbra Streisand.

#TonysNotSoYoung While this year’s Tonys, largely thanks to Hamilton, was in many ways a celebration of youth and a new generation in the theater, it was also a reminder that qualification for AARP membership and discounted movie tickets doesn’t mean over the hill. The winners of the Lead Actor in a Play, Lead Actress in a Play, Featured Actor in a Play, and Featured Actress in a Play—Frank Langella (The Father), Jessica Lange (Long Day’s Journey Into Night), Reed Birney (The Humans), and Jayne Houdyshell (The Humans), respectively—can all see 60, and in one case 70, in the rear-view mirror, and all gave amazing, vital performances.

#TonysNotSoWhite Suck it, Oscars. Even though the straight play acting Tonys all went to white olds, the musical acting trophies all went to young people of color—Leslie Odom, Jr. (Hamilton), Cynthia Erivo (The Color Purple), Daveed Diggs (Hamilton), and Renée Elise Goldsberry (Hamilton).

A Show You May Have Heard Of When it comes to Hamilton, there’s no need to worry about burying the lead. The only surprise of the evening was that the musical phenomenon, with 11 wins, failed to beat the record for most Tonys, held by The Producers (12). Still, the fact that Hamilton not only dominated the competition but the show itself—Barbra Streisand, handing out the award for Best Musical, wore Revolutionary-era ruffles—seemed fitting. Hamilton has already transcended the category of great musical—surely one of the best of all time—to become a genuine cultural phenomenon. What other musical would get an introduction on the broadcast, even if taped, from Barack and Michelle Obama? The epic-ness of Hamilton’s moment extended to its rollicking after-party at Tavern on the Green, where hundreds of guests, spurred on by Questlove at the turntable, danced joyfully till, literally, the break of dawn—a poignant reminder to, as a lyric from Hamilton puts it, “Look around, look around/At how lucky we are to be alive right now.”